On Broadway: Teen attends Tony Awards as seat filler

Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at 02:06 PM.

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A Stuart Cramer High School student recently sat with Broadway’s biggest stars. The Blumenthal Performing Arts sent Bailey Patterson, a Mount Holly resident and rising sophomore, to the Tony Awards in New York City on June 8.

Blumenthal receives a pair of seat filler tickets for the theater awards show each year. In the past, the tickets have been given away through Blumenthal’s Facebook page. But this year, the staff decided to tie the ticket giveaway into their Blumey Awards, which recognizes theater excellence at area high schools, said Michelle Youngs, Blumenthal assistant director of education.

“Our Blumey awards program is becoming bigger and bigger, and we just wanted to give all the participating schools the opportunity since we know they’re all really into theater,” she said.

The 39 schools that participated in the Blumey Awards were eligible to nominate up to two students in any grade who participated in the school’s production. Patterson’s name was drawn out of the 28 nominations received.

Patterson is on her school’s cross country team, swim team and dance team and has always sang in the church choir, but the 2013-14 school year was her introduction to theater. She was involved in the theater club’s production of “13 the Musical.”

“I love performing and being on stage and people watching me,” Patterson said.

She had seen some Tony performances on YouTube but had never really watched the awards show. She’d also never been to New York City. Patterson’s theater teacher announced the good news in mid-May, and Patterson couldn’t believe that she’d been picked.

A Stuart Cramer High School student recently sat with Broadway’s biggest stars. The Blumenthal Performing Arts sent Bailey Patterson, a Mount Holly resident and rising sophomore, to the Tony Awards in New York City on June 8.

Blumenthal receives a pair of seat filler tickets for the theater awards show each year. In the past, the tickets have been given away through Blumenthal’s Facebook page. But this year, the staff decided to tie the ticket giveaway into their Blumey Awards, which recognizes theater excellence at area high schools, said Michelle Youngs, Blumenthal assistant director of education.

“Our Blumey awards program is becoming bigger and bigger, and we just wanted to give all the participating schools the opportunity since we know they’re all really into theater,” she said.

The 39 schools that participated in the Blumey Awards were eligible to nominate up to two students in any grade who participated in the school’s production. Patterson’s name was drawn out of the 28 nominations received.

Patterson is on her school’s cross country team, swim team and dance team and has always sang in the church choir, but the 2013-14 school year was her introduction to theater. She was involved in the theater club’s production of “13 the Musical.”

“I love performing and being on stage and people watching me,” Patterson said.

She had seen some Tony performances on YouTube but had never really watched the awards show. She’d also never been to New York City. Patterson’s theater teacher announced the good news in mid-May, and Patterson couldn’t believe that she’d been picked.

“Last year was her first year in theater so she just started learning about it, and then to have the chance to [see] all the people she’s been learning about in class was an amazing opportunity,” Youngs said.

She was in New York City from June 6-8, with the awards show taking place June 7. Her cousin Kirby Beal, a recent college graduate, accompanied her on the trip. The pair spent June 6 touring the city, taking in “Newsies,” visiting Trump Tower and shopping.

“I live in a really small area in Mount Holly, so I always love big cities, and I love to see things that aren’t around here,” Patterson said.

The Tony’s were the next day, and Blumenthal staff member Brandon Carter attended the event with Patterson. Patterson said the day started out early with a dress rehearsal at Radio City Music Hall, where she saw many celebrities preparing for the event.

After lunch, she got dressed up and went back to Radio City for another meeting. Patterson chose to wear a strapless black-and-white prom dress that she found at Goodwill.

During the Tony’s, she was part of the seat-filler group that went on stage to cheer behind the cast of “Rocky” during a number. Waiting backstage before the performance, she waved at Hugh Jackman as he walked past and he waved back.

“All the stars being there at once. I was so star struck. They’re just walking around like it’s a normal day,” she said. “It was like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I think it was so awesome that I won the chance.”

She sat on the far left side of the venue in the third row the rest of the time, and luckily didn’t get called on to change seats.

“Being a theater person, you always want to get better and sing more and perfect what you are doing. These people are just so good, and to think that they do it so many times a week, it was so awesome,” Patterson said. “To think that maybe one day in theater I could be on stage doing the same thing.”